All claims that the poor, oppressed Palestinians in Gaza are starving and being subjected to an inhuman embargo by Israel are LIES.

There is no starvation.

There is no shortage of goods for basic needs.

There is no embargo.

There is no apartheid.

There is no humanitarian crisis whatsoever.

I base my observation on one simple fact: Hamas somehow manages to find the resources and manpower to launch close to 10 rockets into Israel every single day.

There simply cannot be any shortage of basic goods if Hamas can spare the effort and resources to import, build and launch Qassams every day. It is a luxury that destitute, enslaved refugees simply cannot afford. Therefore, there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The alternative is, Hamas is being grossly irresponsible to import rocket parts instead of basic necessities for its people.

So which is it, o supporters of the ‘innocent and every peace-seeking’ Palestinians?

A Palestinian girl whose family members was killed yesterday in Gaza after an Israeli air attack was interviewed today on Palestinian TV and placed the blame for the war on Hamas: “I say, Hamas is the cause, in the first place, of all wars.”

3000 rockets is a huge luxury for a nation-state that is supposedly ‘starving’ from a brutal Zionist embargo.

The result is, predictably, an angry hornet nest reaction from Israel. Followed by more rockets in ‘retaliation’, followed by more Israeli retribution…

Don’t you IDIOTS who donate to Palestinian relief efforts realize exactly how your kindly generosity is making things WORSE in the Middle East???!!!!

To illustrate my point, see this cartoon which aptly portrays the situation…

The cartoon is from 2 years and 4 months ago. Israel has been putting up with the same old terrorist crap for more than 2 years, and still the rest of the world sides with the Mumbai massacre mentality gang.

By the way, if the Imperialistic Zionists are soooooooooooooooo evil, then why is it that their carefully targeted air strikes have a kill count of 94% terrorists so far? That’s only 6% civilian casualties.

And this despite the b***tards of Hamas intentionally placing their depots, weapons factories and launch sites among civilians and putting innocents in harm’s way as human shields, as they admit themselves:

Can you say the same for Hamas’ random, untargeted, chaotic firing of rockets into Israel – where they usually land in schools?

And the excuse that the rocket attacks are only in response to Israeli aggression, and would cease if Israel just butted out, are totally false: Rocket attacks increased 5 times after Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip.

Therefore, following that logic and cause-and-effect, the more of Gaza Israel occupies, the fewer rockets will be launched – thus signifying that Hamas wants Israel to sit on Gaza land, since when Israel retreast they show their displeasure by launching more rockets instead of building infrastructure.

I HAD previously alerted pedestrians who intend to walk from the Johor Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex to Singapore that they would be in for a hazardous journey.

There is no dedicated lane for pedestrians, and the five-foot way along the vehicle road is more like a “two-foot way”, or even one or “no-foot way” at times. Therefore, the oddysey down the CIQ complex to the Causeway carries the very real risk of being knocked down by a vehicle.

I have good news and bad news: The good news is, we don’t have to worry about risking our lives to go to work each morning. The bad news is that walking from the CIQ to Singapore is now not allowed at all! Apparently, it is simply too risky.

It looks like everyone will have to take a bus from now on, no matter how long the queue. That said, I really must commend the staff at the CIQ bus waiting area.

On Wednesday morning, the huge crowd waiting in line for buses once again was became a free-for-all, squeeze-in-where-you-can melee. As usual, up to 12 or so lines were squeezed chaotically into two lines to board the buses.

Then one of the officers stationed at the area began shouting at people to form an orderly queue. He even took a hands-on approach by firmly, but not roughly, placing his hand on the shoulders of those in the fringe lines and beckoning them to the rear.

Soon the spread-out mob became an orderly double line, and you know what? Within minutes, even those at the back of the queue were boarding the buses. It’s amazing what some order and authority can do.

I really admire the guts the officers showed when they sorted out the mess.

However, the CIQ management really needs to give serious consideration to the traffic bottlenecks and especially the total neglect of pedestrians. Just because it is a long, long way to trek, the powers that be apparently decided that no one would even attempt it.

I am definitely not the first to ask that the old customs building be reopened for pedestrians only.

See also this The Star report, which may have been researched in response to all the complaints being sent in about the CIQ:

Stranded as walking banned at Causeway
By GLADYS TAY

JOHOR BARU: The new ruling barring people from walking across the Causeway has not only turned out to be an inconvenience but left some stranded in Singapore.

The ruling, which was implemented by Malaysia since the new Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex opened has now been adopted by authorities in the island republic.

With the ruling, pedestrians who were previously able to walk across the 1km causeway when there were massive traffic jams on either side are now forced to wait for public transport.

Many Malaysians, especially workers and students, have been stranded at the checkpoint due to the lack of buses especially during traffic jams and peak hours.

Student Cary Nyeo, 21, had to stay over at a friend’s house in Singapore on Dec 24 when she was unable to board a bus back to Johor Baru.

About turn: Pedestrians who are not allowed to walk across the Causeway have to turn back. This has caused delays and other inconveniences to them.

Nyeo, who is taking a management course in Singapore, said signboards had been put up at the CIQ informing people that walking was not allowed.

“I have seen people break the rule but it is really dangerous to walk across the border now with no pedestrian lanes available,” she said.

Secondary school student Jasmine Tee said the new ruling would extend her travelling time to and from school. The 14 year-old student of Woodlands Secondary in Singapore said she was worried she would reach home very late in the evening.

“If I have to attend extra-curricular activities, I will have to take public transport home,” she said.

“Previously, I would walk across the causeway during a traffic jam and reach home at about 8pm.”

Johor Immigration director Mohd Nasri Ishak said pedestrians were not allowed to walk across the border because it was dangerous.

Southern Johor School Bus Association vice-president Lee Sin Min said they had gone to the new CIQ to check out the place to familiarise themselves with the routes and procedures.

My Christmas post this time around features the grand celebration and show night the Varsity Christian Fellowships (VCF) had in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang, back in 2003.

The celebration was held in the Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra (DTSP) of TITAS class infamy.

(Two side notes: I was in TITAS class when the lecturer started on about how Islam is the only truth and every other religion – Christianity, Buddhism – is wrong. And he stated: “Kamu jangan offended. Ini bukan opinion, ini adalah fact!”. Talk about your muhibbah cultural sensitivity. Secondly, we got in trouble with the USM office who almost didn’t let us use the DTSP, because the previous year there had been a lot of emptied beer and liquor bottles left in the hall! We explained it wasn’t us who got stone drunk and litterbuggy in the DTSP, but the club that had used the hall immediately before us for their own celebration, whom I shall not name here).

We had lots of presentations, including dance, song, drama and music. The turnout was great, perhaps partly due to the buses we chartered just to ferry students back to their dorms after the show! We also had a quite intense awareness drive where volunteers would man the booth along the DK G (Dewan Kuliah) area.

A little history on Combined Christmas: It was started as a way to reach out to the campus students and tell them about the Christian message. Apart from that, it was also a way to bring together the various VCFs to work as a team and foster closer ties.

The VCFs who took part in 2003’s Combined Christmas were Persatuan Persaudaraan Kristian (PPK), Chi Alpha (CA), Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) and Living Word (aka Navigators).

(A note to all current USM students reading this: The CA here is not exactly the same CA that you currently know! After years of deliberation and prayer, in 2004 PPK and then-CA joined together to form… PKA, Persaudaraan Kristian Agape! If you don’t know this very rich history about the VCFs that date back to the first years of USM’s founding, do ask your leaders to fill you in!)

A little bit nostalgically, Combined Christmas has recently been replaced by other activities that serve the same evangelistic/fellowship purposes. There’s still nothing quite like that Christmas atmosphere…

Anyway, the following is the video of Combined Christmas 2003 as recorded and edited by Lim Kee Sitt (currently a wedding videographer pro), who generously filmed the event for posterity. The video is split into 9 parts for ease of loading.

Along with the videos, I will provide commentary on what is going on and how we went about it, so that future generations can take note and perhaps be inspired to host their own Christmas/Easter/other celebrations.

This is a montage showing various scenes from pre-show preparations and the night proper. It serves as a good intro and teaser. You can see the dancers (who is that guy in tan bermuda shorts and brownish hair???), drama team, choir and emcees rehearsing, the pre-show group prayer, some of the decorations, and even the DTSP itself. If you’re quick, you can spot overall main director Adeline Poh conversing with stage director Anne Leong!

From Malaysia Today (with lots of choice comments at the link, one included in screenshot below):

Pedestrians have it tough at CIQ

I WOULD like to offer two friendly warnings to all travellers who are entering or leaving Malaysia via the new Customs and Immigration Quarantine Complex in Johor Baru.

First, when leaving Malaysia, you’ll be in for quite an odyssey if you plan to go on foot. There is apparently no dedicated lane for pedestrians all the way to or from the Causeway.

You’ll have to follow the vehicle roads and play “frogger” or “chicken” with motorists to cross the road at certain points as there is no raised pedestrian crossing or zebra crossing.

Second, upon returning to Malay­sia and after you have made it through the passport checkpoints, you will have a choice: turn left to walk to Johor Baru City Square shopping complex, or turn right and go down an escalator or stairs to a bus waiting area.

I have learned first hand that once you make that choice, you cannot change it.

Let’s say that you go to the bus area, but then want to try walking to the JB City Square due to a lack of buses.

If you try to walk back up the stairs, backtracking not more than 10 metres or so, you will be stopped by the guards who have orders not to allow anyone to return via the way they came. Maybe if you try walking backwards, they’ll make an exemption.

Instead, you have to walk back to the entry zone and go through the passport checkpoint all over again. At rush hour, it means you may have to queue behind some 50 people two times in a row!

The alternative is to simply walk along the road meant for vehicles, which again is full of risk.

By not providing any contingencies for pedestrians, the CIQ Complex is crippling the self-dependency and initiative of many Malaysians.

I loved this comic as soon as I saw it. Heck, I even recognized the artist’s rendition of Sylar from the few episodes of Heroes I actually managed to catch.

Click the image above to view full size comic at creator’s site.

Almost every character with powers in Heroes is based off an already existing comic or game character. But just to mention that if Sylar is ripping off Japanese video game hero Rockman (aka Mega Man), Hiro Nakamura is ripping off manga villainDio Brando… Which is readily admitted!

Recently, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi made headlines when he took off his shoes and threw them at President George W Bush, in order to show his displeasure at the US president’s policies.

It made me wonder if Muntadhar al-Zaidi misses the glory days of that most beloved of benevolent peacemongers, Saddam Hussein. It also made me think about throwing some shoes of my own.

Solely in terms of numbers: Roughly one million Iraqis died under Saddam’s reign, averaging 50,000 deaths a year.

Under the American ‘oppressors’, only an average of 6800 deaths occured a year – and the rate decreases daily.

Most of the deaths were caused not by US troops nor by Iraqi soldiers, but by foreign terrorists who felt that the suffering or ordinary Iraqis were a small price to pay for embarrassing the ‘crusaders’. Can someone please throw some shoes at Al-Qaeda now?

And may I remind you that under the Bill Clinton-era embargo, the United Nations reported that more than one million Iraqis had died from nine years of deprivation (more than 100,000 a year) – with 567,000 of them children under the age of five.

Muntadhar could therefore consider Clinton twice the murderer as Saddam, and 14 times the murderer as Bush.

Yet I don’t see Muntadhar throwing shoes at Clinton. Maybe he’s just waiting for Baghdad to book a seminar where Clinton will give one of his expensive talks.

Thanks to the evil Bush’s imperialistic abuse of international law, South Africa and even the city of Chicago have a higher violent crime rate for their population than Iraq does. Shoes ought to be thrown at the leaders of those places.

Oil production has also increased far beyond the post-Gulf War period, with profits going to the rebuilding of Iraq’s infrastructure. May I remind you that any oil that was pumped out under Saddam’s rule went not to the common Iraqis, but straight into Saddam’s pockets – or those of corrupt UN officials involved in the Oil-For-Food scandal. Shoes ought to be thrown at them instead.

I suggest that Malaysian media seriously consider sending an entourage of reporters to Iraq to interview the local people and compose a photo essay. It won’t be all that dangeroues. After all, western reporters can now walk around Baghdad without body armour or armed escort.

Just like all the smiling men, women and children can now go to the market, enjoy amusement park rides (yes, they have them in Iraq!) and play soccer without having to fear a visit from Saddam’s enforcers or roving gangs of terrorists.

Muntadhar may hate Bush, but it looks like someone forgot to tell the millions of liberated pro-Bush Iraqis that he is a heartless mass murderer who deserves our vilification.

Air conditioning, Christina Aguilera music, Red Hot Chilli Peppers (the band, not the spice), so much food to choose from they get fat, Islamic prayer 5 times a day, free Korans, free Game Boys, movie nights, English classes, arts classes, exercise equipment, and more stuff so horrifying that they beg to stay.

Malaysia’s ISA, the Gitmo Holiday Club is not.

———————————

Scott South sent in a letter to Malaysiakini agreeing with me and telling about how the Middle East has been anti-US for 50 years (about the length of the existence of kick-a$$ Israel, so that’s probably the explanation there), and made me realize a goof of mine: Iraq has a lower violent death rate, not crime rate as I mistakenly put!

Though I don’t think Bush is really even close to being a tyrant…

Bush not as bad as he’s made out to be Scott South | Dec 18, 08 4:25pm

I refer to the Malaysiakini article Let’s throw shoes at others besides Bush.

As an American who once lived in KL, it was pleasant to read the writer’s comments about George Bush not being the worst tyrant in the world, much as I dislike him.

Next month when Barack Obama becomes president, we will embark on the long road to economic and image recovery.

The Gulf Wars, meanwhile, have been over-rated for their negative effect on the image of America in Muslim countries.

Arab and other Islamic countries have hated America for 50 years. Long before Sept 11, the racist, hate-mongering comments in the Dubai Gulf News vilifying the American people (not just the government, but the people) were horrendous.

Meanwhile, the Dubai government college where I taught was a place where Americans regularly received preposterous emails from students accusing them of being Jews and spies.

As for Sept 11, many Arabs are still convinced that those attacks were perpetrated by the CIA to make Muslims look bad. Nothing ever changes in the Arab world.

I just have one small bone to pick in the above article: the writer describes Chicago as having a greater crime rate than Baghdad.

Actually, Houston, San Francisco and Chicago, according to a recent survey by a prestigious British think tank, have considerably lower violent crime rates than London.

This survey rated 215 world cities, and Baghdad ranked dead last in safety.

Summary of Me

scottthongblog[at]yahoo[dot]com

Seeking truth, hating lies.

Oh my labels!

Free thinking, but not a Free Thinker.
A Christian and a scientist, but not a Christian Scientist.
Believing in a universal church, but not a Catholic.
Trying to be a saint in these latter days, but not a Latter Day Saint.
A witness for Jehovah, but not a Jehovah's Witness.
Sumitted to God, but not a Muslim.
Seeking knowledge, but not a Gnostic.
Rational in thinking, but not a Rationalist.
Upholding humanity, but not a Humanist.
A supporter of liberation, but not a Liberal.
A supporter of democracy, but not a Democrat.
Acknowledging the importance of social values, but not a Socialist.
Seeking and valuing truth, but not a Truther.